Commentary and analysis to persuade people to become socialist and to act for themselves, organizing democratically and without leaders, to bring about a world of common ownership and free access. We are solely concerned with building a movement of socialists for socialism. We are not reformists with a programme of policies to patch up capitalism.

Thursday, May 28, 2015

Plantations: Western Profits, African and Asian Conflicts

On Wednesday 27 May, Socfin is holding its general meeting with
its two main shareholders present, the Fabri family and the Bolloré
group. At the same time, from Cambodia to Côte d’Ivoire, local
communities deprived of their lands by the Socfin plantations are
mobilised, demanding their rights.

Peasant assemblies oppose the shareholders' assembly in
Luxembourg.

Today, 27 May, 300 people from six affected
villages are gathering to protest Socfin's failure to respect its
commitments in Mondulkiri, Cambodia, while 250 representatives of 13
villages affected by the Socfin plantation in Côte d’Ivoire are
also mobilising. At the same time, in the Bel-Air Hotel in
Luxembourg, the shareholders of Socfin are holding their annual
general meeting. The communities are counting their losses, while the
shareholders tally their profits. Recently, on 16 May, 300
people gathered at the LAC plantation headquarters in Liberia,
while 400 mobilised to blockade
the Dibombarri plantation in Mbongo from 23 to 28 April.
Everywhere, communities forming the International Alliance of
Plantation Communities have the same demands: that Socfin give back
the rights to use lands that the communities consider essential to
their livelihoods, and that it stick to its commitments to compensate
people according to different agreements it has signed on to.The Luxemburgish NGOs SOS
Faim with civil society platform Meng Landwirtschaft are
mobilising in front of the hotel where the general meeting is taking
place tomorrow, to transmit the demands of the local communities.Socfin does not recognise the legitimacy of these
movements and their representatives.

In their official
statement of 12 May the company leaders deny that these
conflicts exist and insist that their plantations are «vanguards of
social progress» and that they «have always acted in peaceful
coexistence with the communities surrounding their facilities.» A
major shareholder of Socfin (39%), Bolloré initiated a negotiation
process in October 2014 but then backtracked. In a statement
released 23 April, the company disavowed its responsibility stating
that «we are only a non-managing minority shareholder of Socfin
Group which, since more than 70 years, is majority-controlled and
managed by the Belgian Fabri family».«A model of socially and environmentally irresponsible
investment»«Bolloré cashes in its Socfin dividends all the while denying
its responsability», bemoans Emmanuel Elong, spokesperson for the
Alliance. «Socfin with its headquarters in Luxembourg, its offices
in Switzerland, its shareholders in Liechtenchtein and its refusal to
respond to plantation communities is the model of irresponsible
capitalism. Against this, we have no choice but to organise
ourselves, build alliances and take action to force these business
leaders to respect the rights of local communities. We demand an
international negotiation with Socfin and Bolloré to draw up a
roadmap to resolve the conflicts.» Following the recent
mobilisations, Socfin subsidiaries in Cameroon, Cambodia and Liberia
have started to recognise the local communities' organisations. But
corporate headquarters in Europe continue to deny their legitimacy”.